Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel

Victorian romance mixes seamlessly with elegant prose and biting wit—and werewolves—in Gail Carriger’s delightful debut novel. Soulless introduces Alexia Tarabotti, a parasol-wielding Londoner getting dangerously close to spinster status. But there are more important things than finding a husband. For Alexia was born without a soul, giving her the ability to render any vampire or werewolf completely powerless.

Timeless: The Parasol Protectorate, the Fifth

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Prudence

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama ("Rue" to her friends) is bequeathed an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female under similar circumstances would do: she christens it the Spotted Custard and floats off to India. Soon she stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves.

Imprudence

Rue and the crew of the Spotted Custard return from India with revelations that shake the foundations of England's scientific community. Queen Victoria is not amused, the vampires are tetchy, and something is wrong with the local werewolf pack. To top it all off, Rue's best friend, Primrose, keeps getting engaged to the most unacceptable military types. Rue has family problems as well. Her vampire father is angry, her werewolf father is crazy, and her obstreperous mother is both. Worst of all, Rue's beginning to suspect what they really are...is frightened.

Etiquette & Espionage: Finishing School, Book 1

Fourteen-year old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. More interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea - and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy - Mrs. Temminnick is desperate her daughter become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish all right - but it's a different kind of finishing.

A Carriger Quartet

Four original, unabridged, full-cast productions of Gail Carriger's most beloved fantasy short stories: "The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn't, the Mummy That Was, and the Cat in the Jar": A mummified cat, a secret agent, and an aristocrat entangle Alessandro Tarraboti (father of Alexia Tarraboti from the Parasol Protectorate series) in a rollicking, wry adventure into the supernatural secrets of ancient Egypt.

A Study in Silks

In a Victorian era ruled by a council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch and sorcery the demon enemy of the Empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is magic that can run machines - something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as a guest of Her Majesty's secret laboratories. What's a polite young lady to do but mind her manners and pray she's never found out?

Crudrat

Welcome to Wheel: a perfect world without poverty, disease, or want. Tinkered and tuned in every way for maximum order by Rank and Spoke, every child knows her destiny - so long as she can take the neural implant. The defective, whose bodies reject the implants, do not exist. Ghosts. Cyphers. Haunting the edges of society, living on scraps, killed for sport. A lucky few, the Crudrats, scrape out a perilous living cleaning the toxic wastes from the great machines that power the station.

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

Evil is most assuredly afoot - and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade... and a librarian. These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences - the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling - will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest...

Curse on the Land: Soulwood, Book 2

Before Nell Ingram met skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, she had no one to rely on, finding strength only in her arcane connection to the dark woods around her. But now she has friends in the newly formed PsyLED team to keep her grounded - even if being part of the agency responsible for policing paranormals comes with dangers of its own.

The Ghost Rebellion: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Book 5

The chase is on! After rescuing Queen Victoria from the clutches of the Maestro, Agents Eliza D Braun and Wellington Books are in hot pursuit of Dr. Henry Jekyll. While he continues his experiments on the aristocracy of Europe, he leaves a trail of chaos and despair in his wake. However, when Eliza and Wellington run him to ground in India, they are forced to come face to face with ghosts from the past, and the realities of empire.

At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire's talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It's not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices...

Steam and Sorcery

Sir Merrick Hadrian hunts monsters, both human and supernatural. A Knight of the Order of the Round Table, his use of magick and the technologies of steam power have made him both respected and feared. But his considerable skills are useless in the face of his greatest challenge, guardianship of five unusual children. At a loss, Merrick enlists the aid of a governess....

Magic Binds: Kate Daniels, Book 9

Mercenary Kate Daniels knows all too well that magic in post-Shift Atlanta is a dangerous business. But nothing she's faced could have prepared her for this.... Kate and the former Beast Lord Curran Lennart are finally making their relationship official. But there are some steep obstacles standing in the way of their walk to the altar.... Kate's father, Roland, has kidnapped the demigod Saiman and is slowly bleeding him dry in his never-ending bid for power.

A Lady of Integrity: The Magnificent Devices Series, Book 7

Will a daring rescue put a wedding and a future at risk? Lady Claire Trevelyan and renowned scientist Andrew Malvern are looking forward to domestic felicity in London when they are surprised by an unexpected visitor. A desperate and fugitive Alice Chalmers seeks their help - her ship has been seized in the Duchy of Venice and worse, her navigator Jake has been thrown into the dreaded underwater prison from which no one ever escapes. Even the innocent.

The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Book 2

Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance...with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown. The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure.

Exodus: Imp Series, Book 8

Aaru is at war. The rebel angels are calling for Sam's exclusion from the Ruling Council and her banishment to Hel. But Sam's isn't the only future at risk. If they're defeated, Gregory and his brothers will face exile, losing everything they've spent billions of years to build.

Where the Wild Things Bite

Delivering a rare book to a valued customer is definitely part of mild-mannered archivist Anna Whitfield's job description. You know what isn't? Protecting her precious cargo from midflight theft by the very pilot who is flying her to Half-Moon Hollow...while trying to appear as unappetizing as possible to the only other passenger, a vampire. Undead bookstore owner Jane Jameson could be waiting a very long time for her book. Possibly forever.

Crowned and Dangerous

Nothing is simple when you're 35th in line for the British crown, least of all marriage. But with love on their side and plans to elope, Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her beau, Darcy O'Mara, hope to bypass a few royal rules....

Welcome to Nocturne Falls - the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year. Jayne Frost is a lot of things. Winter elf, Jack Frost's daughter, Santa Claus' niece, heir to the Winter Throne, and now...private investigator. Sort of. When she buys a sealed box at an estate sale and cat-related circumstances cause that box to be opened, life in Nocturne Falls starts to go haywire. Jayne has no choice but to figure out what she unleashed and how to recapture it.

Work Experience: Schooled in Magic, Book 4

In the summer between second and third year at Whitehall, Emily accompanies Lady Barb on her rounds of the Cairngorm Mountains, bringing magical help to the locals and searching for new magicians. For Emily, tired and broken after the events of Study in Slaughter, it should be a chance to relax as well as to visit a new part of the Nameless World, to put her responsibilities aside and just be herself. But the locals aren't quite what she expects, with problems of their own, and Lady Barb is a different person away from Whitehall.

Blood of the Earth: Soulwood, Book 1

When Nell Ingram met skinwalker Jane Yellowrock, she was almost alone in the world, exiled by both choice and fear from the cult she was raised in, defending herself with the magic she drew from her deep connection to the forest that surrounds her. Now, Jane has referred Nell to PsyLED, a Homeland Security agency policing paranormals, and agent Rick LaFleur has shown up at Nell's doorstep.

Once Broken Faith: October Daye, Book 10

Politics have never been October "Toby" Daye's strong suit. When she traveled to the Kingdom of Silences to prevent them from going to war with her home, the Kingdom of the Mists, she wasn't expecting to return with a cure for elf-shot and a whole new set of political headaches. Now the events she unwittingly set in motion could change the balance of modern Faerie forever, and she has been ordered to appear before a historic convocation of monarchs. Naturally, things have barely gotten underway when the first dead body shows up.

Promise of Wrath: Hellequin Chronicles, Book 6

A terrible storm is brewing in London, and Nathan Garrett, the sorcerer known as Hellequin, is the only one who can stop it. But his enemies have other plans. Harnessing the power of an ancient stone tablet, they cast Nate and his allies into another realm, where a bloody conflict rages between creatures twisted by magic. Meanwhile, with his friends' lives in danger, Nate must put centuries of differences aside, and place his trust in one of his greatest foes.

Publisher's Summary

Gail Carriger’s best-selling Parasol Protectorate series reimagines Victorian England with vampires, werewolves, and a dash of steampunk. Blameless is the third in the series starring the parasol-wielding Lady Alexia Maccon, formerly Alexia Tarabotti. After news spreads of her delicate condition—a surprise to everyone since she’s married to a werewolf—Alexia is desperate to escape the London gossip. So she heads to Italy for a change of scenery.

I thoroughly enjoyed the previous book and expected to love this one. Unfortunately, the entire reading was ruined by the incredibly long gaps between chapters, odd pacing (really slow at times and normal at others), and irregular unexpected pauses between sentences. It seemed as though the narrator recorded random sentences and paragraphs in separate sittings, which were then pieced together. The amount of dead space between every single chapter was so weirdly long that a few times I thought the book had ended. How did this production get a 'pass'?

The overly long pauses between chapters in this book were simply nerve wracking. Three seconds is one thing but 10 to 15 seconds of dead air lasts forever when you're waiting on the story to progress. On more that one occasion I thought something was wrong with my devise or headphones. Emily Gray does an excellent job and I hate to rate this as only 3 Stars, but I simply cannot recommend this book on audio without mentioning to horrible dead air pauses. I will continue on to the next book and hope for better editing.

As always, I am in love with this series and with the narrator. However, this book had an unfortunate proclivity for pauses. I am not sure why the pauses were not edited out, but they became annoying very quickly. It seemed there was a 15 second pause after every paragraph that left you feeling like the chapter had ended. I do hope these pauses will not continue in the next recorded book. I feel like they added several hours to the book just be leaving in the pauses. Of course, that may have been their goal?

The parasol protectorate is back and steampunk technology is in high gear. In this installment, Alexia is on a mission to prove her husband wrong. To accomplish this task, she rallies the old protectorate, but adds some new faces as well. Madame LeFoux moves to the forefront of this book, and I do not know why. She really is a hindrance to Alexia???s survival rather than an aid, but Ivy is as solid a friend as one could ever hope for. Major Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings returns and we get to see a new side of him. Floote is as faithful as always with more skills than previously assumed. Professor Lyall lives the thankless but competent existence of an extraordinary Beta. In the end, Alexia gets what she really wants and we learn more about her father in the process. All in all, this is an excellent book that resolves the Changeless cliffhanger. Emily Gray is perfect for this book, and I cannot wait for Heartless. It is important to note that you really cannot enjoy the books in this series out of order.

First off: this is the third of 5 stories and they really won't make sense unless you attack them in order.

Second: Carriger's story is finally taking shape...I guess she started to do that in Changeless, but Blameless is where it became obvious that there was a bigger mystery unfolding. Also, some of the more repetitive jokes from the first two books---such as Alexia's libido---got downplayed in this one.

Third: It is also the first book in which characters other than Alexia and Connel take center stage...in particular, Professor Lyall.

Lastly: The non-English accents presented in this book didn't tax Emily Gray's diction as much as the previous book.

I liked it a lot better than the 2nd book, but Lord Maccon needs to grovel a lot more and Lord Akeldama needs more screen time. On the other hand I was glad to see Prof.Lyall taking a larger role in this book. I found the scence with Biffy extremely touching and slash worthy LOL.

I can't believe that Alexia forgave Lord Maccon, what does she see in him? Madame Lefoux is a much better hero than him in this book, as she was in the previous one. (*'Д｀)=3sigh. I also was dissapointed that we never got to find out more about her father. I suppose that shall be revealed in the later books.

I just wish that I can like Lord Maccon as much as I like the other characters but I can't seem to find any redeeming nor likable side of him yet. I hope there is more Lord Akeldama in the next book as well as Prof. Lyall and Madame Lefoux. As for Lord Maccon, I give up. He needs to do something drastic to change my mind. He needs to take a lesson from Cullan (Magic Slays)!

Funny and enchanting as the other books in this series, but the sound editor should be taken out and smacked on the head with Alexia's parasol. Long pauses between paragraphs and in some places all you hear is an intake of breath. An annoying distraction.

Whomever edited the audio left long gaps between the beginnings and ends of the chapters. The only thing to give away that the book hadn't accidently stopped was that about the time one would look to check, a breath would be heard and then a little longer and the book would start again. Long pauses between breaks in the story also.

Otherwise, well performed and well written. Enjoyable, except when I thought the book had turned off on its own.

Of course, Alexia is quite marvelous, but I am rather partial to the idea of her husband!

What aspect of Emily Gray’s performance would you have changed?

Emily Gray is perfect for these stories and previous installments have been very well performed, but this version went wrong somewhere in the editing/production. The pauses were all were all over the place, leaving great yawning silences,sometimes between sentences which really spoiled the pace of the story and overall effect for me.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Alexia's exploits are hilarious, but I got quite annoyed with this book because of the stupid gaps and pauses.